Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Government Report: Flawed Iraq WMD intel

A quick note to my regular readers: with school in session, I sometimes find I don't have the time to update the site daily. I'll do my best, but don't be surprised if a day or two goes by without an update. Luckily, today was just a math lecture with no homework, so I have a little time free to spread my special brand of anti-American hatred. (Note: I'm being sarcastic. Maybe).

Obscured in the non-stop Terri Schiavo coverage was a report from MSNBC that on Tuesday, federal officials confirmed that George W. Bush's commission on weapons of mass destruction will confirm what we already know, that the intelligence gathering process was flawed with intelligence agencies not sharing information with each other.

The MSNBC piece quotes an official familiar with the report as saying that policy-makers might have been seeking preconceived conclusions about the WMDs, and also to determine if foreign intelligence agencies had reached the same conclusions as the United States.

In another story, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "furious and angry" that he had been misinformed about Iraq's stockpiles of weapons when he laid out the WMD claim to the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003.

You'll recall that former CIA director George Tenent was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Dec. 14, 2004, for his role in...well, I guess in doing a great job of producing erroneous intelligence to support the claim that Iraq had WMDs.

And finally, the report that longtime Boy Scouts of America official Douglas Sovereign Smith, Jr. has pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. It's a good thing the BSA has made it a rule to keep out undesirables like homosexuals and atheists, because lord knows only they are into child pornography (that's me being sarcastic again). Found on Smith's home computer were 520 images of child pornography and video clips. But, as a Boy Scouts spokesman stated, Smith was not in contact with children in his role at the BSA, so I guess that means it's not quite as bad to have child pornography if you collect it on your own time. Another piece of good news in this story is that Smith traded the child pornography with others, but did not sell it. Which is a pretty important distinction. (Sarcasm again).

Oh, and Michael Jackson is still on trial. Just in case you were wondering.